Super Moderator

It's about to begin. The World Championship of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. It took so much of here to get here. So many hours to wait in lines, so much money to spend on cards, and so much games to win. But you managed to get here, and now you are eagerly waiting for the match-ups to be displayed on the big screen. In your backpack, you have everything you need. Playmat, damage counters, rulebook, a classic Chansey coin, and of course, a thoroughly tested playdeck.

DING-DONG!

The matches appear on the screen. You see the name of your opponent, not instantly recognizing him or her. You walk to the appointed table and sit down, shaking hands with them. You cut your deck, shuffle it, draw cards, lay prizes, and carefully check your game plan. You are about to call heads, and then it happened.

BOOM!

An explosion blows a hole in the wall of the tournament hall. Panic ensues. Some people duck under tables, others try to run away. The explosion and the chaos sends many cards flying through the hall. Through the hole comes a large machine on wheels. It seems to be some hybrid between a vacuum cleaner and a legit tank. Two men wearing uncomfortable looking suits that resemble the penguin suits in New Super Mario Brothers Wii come out, one of them speaking through a megaphone.

"Haha, we are Team Plasma! We are going to take all your Pokémon cards and sell them on eBay! We are going to be rich!"

The other pushes a button on a remote control without warning, and with a disturbing sound the machine starts sucking in everyone's valuable cards! You might never see them again! Quickly, you get up and try to find your own cards, or any cards to save from the very unfashionable Team Plasma. Card here, card there, who cares if it's yours, save it! It seems more people thought of this idea. But machine outspeeds man, and before long the hall is void of cards.

Police sirenes sound, but Team Plasma doesn't seem phased. "Thanks for the cards, suckers!" the men say, and they jump back into the machine, turn it off, and drive off in reverse, the reason why it was made so sturdy becoming immediatly apparent as it smashes through the police barricades.

---

After everyone had made their statement to the cops, they left, and you are in the ruined tournament hall. How are you supposed to play now? Who is going to win? And how are you going to get your cards back?

DING-DONG!

The organisation team seems to have an announcement to make. You and the other players listen carefully.

"We thank everyone for their cooperation and patience. The police have assured us that they will do anything to catch those flipperfoot fuckers. But, right now, we still need to find the World Champion. Unfortunately, it seems everyone only has a few cards left...so we have changed up the rules of the game. They will be displayed on the big screen. Now, if everyone could get sorted..."

You look at the big screen, and there you see the new rules.

Warning! This game is pretty damn complicated, especially if you never played the Pokémon Trading Card Game before. That's what the [Expert] label is for. Only join this game if you read the rules completely, or if you like both mafia and the Pokémon TCG and you glanced over the rules quickly.

Also, if you're not going to have the time to play, like noob Gmax, then don't sign up. In this game, you can't hide behind a faction leader and win by doing nothing. If you don't talk to people, you will lose.

Don't be intimidated by the large amount of rules here and just read them through. For anyone who has ever touched the Pokémon TCG, it is mostly a translation of the rules from that card game to mafia.

1. Basic Pokémon
- Every player only has one Basic Pokémon. This will be their Active Pokémon all game long. Therefore, they are their Active Pokémon.
- Player, (a player's) role and (a player's) Pokémon can be used interchangably in everything said by the host (including Role PMs, Result PMs, etc).

2. Your and your Pokémon's properties

- Every player has a starting hand of 2 or 3 cards, which can be used, attached or traded depending on their function. Your hand is hidden from other players.

Every Pokémon has properties. These properties include:
- A number of Hit Points (HP). Attacks and other effects can reduce a Pokémon's HP. If your Pokémon reaches 0 HP, it is Knocked Out, and you are eliminated from the game.
- One or more attacks. Attacks have three properties (Energy cost, base damage, and effects), which will be elaborated on later.
- A type, which can be Grass [G], Fire [R], Water [W], Lightning [L], Fighting [F], Psychic [P], Dark [D], Metal [M] or Colo(u)rless [C].
- A weakness and a resistance. If you attack a Pokémon which is weak to your type, you will do 30 extra damage. If you attack a Pokémon that resists your type, you will do 30 less damage.
- A Pokémon Power. Every turn, you may use your Pokémon Power if you like. The effect stated in it will be executed before attacks will. If you have multiple Pokémon Powers, you can use as many as you like.
- A Pokémon Body. Poké-Bodies are generally passive effects. They are always in effect, even if you don't want to, unlike Pokémon Powers.

3. Attacking & Energy

- With some exceptions, every Pokémon has at least one attack.
- Every Pokémon is able to use one (1) attack every turn.
- A Pokémon can only use an attack if they can fulfill the Energy cost. The Energy cost of an attack shows how many Energies a Pokémon needs to have attached in order to be able to use that attack. These Energy cards must be of the same type as the cost. The exception is a Colourless [C] cost, which can be fulfilled with any type of Energy. An attack with a cost of WCC requires at least one Water [W] Energy, and two of any Energy (can be W, can be F, can be R, can be anything). The two Cs in the cost can also be fulfilled with a Double Colourless Energy.
- Every Pokémon can only attach one Energy card from their hand to their own Pokémon every turn. You can only attach Energy to your own Pokémon.
- You cannot take Energy attached to your Pokémon back into your hand.
- Most attacks require one or more targets. If an attack does any damage, it will be done to that target Pokémon. Any other effects that affect the "target" will be on that Pokémon as well.
- There are ways to prevent other Pokémon from attacking.
- Every attack has an individual priority. If you ask me I will provide you the priority number assigned to your attack(s) so you can use them in your planning.

4. Evolution

- Some Pokémon in the game can evolve. For example, Phanpy can evolve into Donphan. Squirtle can evolve into Wartortle, who can then evolve into Blastoise.
- To evolve, you need to have the required Evolution card in your hand, the one that matches your basic Pokémon (for example, Squirtle cannot evolve into Ivysaur).
- Evolved Pokémon are stronger versions of their pre-evolutions. An evolved Pokémon cannot use its previous form's attacks, Bodies or Powers, but they have new ones, in addition to more HP, and sometimes other advantages.
- You cannot de-evolve at will.
- Pokémon that can evolve twice can evolve to their Stage 2 if they get their hands on a Rare Candy.
- You can evolve from Basic to Stage 1 to Stage 2 in one turn (unlike in the Trading Card Game!).
- Evolution cures all status and other nasty effects currently on your Pokémon.

5. Leveling Up

- Some Pokémon in the game can Level Up. Leveling Up involves turning a Pokémon into a Pokémon Level.
- To Level Up, you need to have the required Level X card in your hand. For example, Rhyperior can only Level Up with Rhyperior Level X, and not with Dialga G Level X.
- There are only Level Up cards for final forms in the game. For example, there would be no Squirtle Level X or Wartortle Level X, but there could be a Blastoise Level X.
- Leveling Up is similar to Evolving: it removes Status effects, and it can be done the same turn as Evolving.
- However, there are also differences. You cannot skip a Stage towards a Level Up through Rare Candy (for example, Wartortle would not be able to Rare Candy towards Blastoise Level X).
- Unlike Evolved Pokémon, Pokémon Level X can use all Powers, Bodies and Attacks of their last form. So if I have a Weavile with CC Slash (20), that Leveled Up to Weavile Level X that can use Claw Swipe for DCC Claw Swipe (40), I can use either of these attacks (but not both at the same time, and only if I have the right Energy attached).
- You cannot go back to your previous Level once you've Leveled Up.

Note about Evolution and Level-Up cards: you might not be able to see what the cards do if you are unable to use them (for example, Palkia G Lv X in the hand of a player whose Pokémon is Steelix). However, you can get a good idea by looking them up on PokeBeach.

6. Knock-Outs and Scavenging

- If you reach zero HP, you are Knocked Out, and you will generally have lost the game, since all win conditions involve outliving others.
- Any cards attached to your Pokémon and in your hand will be revealed to the other players, once.
- After a player has been Knocked Out, any player can attempt to scavenge one card off them. You cannot attempt to scavenge two Cycles in a row.
- There may be ways to increase scavenging priority, one of them being "compatible" with a card.
- If there are two or more players tied for the highest priority on that player, all attempts to scavenge that card fail.

7. Trading

- The cards in everyone's hands are set up in such a way that there are various straight-up trades possible between players that are beneficial to both of them.
- Because of this, it might be a good idea to hold on to Energy cards in your hand instead of attaching them, for long term over short term benefits.
- In order to Trade cards, both players involved send in a PM stating which cards are being Traded.
- You can only make one Trade every turn, with each player sending and receiving one card. Sending in more Trades causes all of them to fail.
- If either player fails to send in the correct Trade, the Trade is canceled.
- Trades involving a player that is Knocked Out that turn by an attack still go through, but otherwise the priority of Trading is lower than (almost) any action.
- Hoarding cards hurts the game and is discouraged. After Cycle 5, everyone who has not made a single trade will take 20 damage per Cycle until they have traded.

8. Winning and Losing

This game's win conditions are quite a bit different from normal mafia games.
- Every player's win condition involves outliving four people of his group, as well as one person in another group, meaning everyone needs a total of five people to die before they do.
- The names of the groups in the game, as well as the amount of groups and the amount of people in each group are unknown.
- Following that, if you manage to die, you lose.
- If you achieve your win condition, you are removed from the game as a winner. The cards attached to your Pokémon and the cards in your hand are treated as if you were Knocked Out (see 6).
- Following that, if it is no longer possible for you to achieve your win condition (because that person you need dead wins), you are automatically Knocked Out. This is why a winner or loser might cause a chain reaction of other winners and losers.
- The game ends when every player has either won or lost.

9. Voting, Deadlines, Cycles, Nights, Days, etc

- This game is played out in Unicycle fashion. There are no Nights or Days, just Cycles (or Turns). Each of them acts as both Day and Night.
- You send in a PM with your actions every Cycle. If you end up doing nothing, send in a PM with Cycle X - idling, to confirm your activity.
- Every Cycle, there will be a vote.
- The vote is not exactly like other games. The person who gets the most votes is not Knocked Out instantly, but instead takes damage.
- The amount of damage this person takes is ten times the number of the current Cycle. So if on Cycle 3, Raverist gets the most votes, then Raverist takes 30 damage.
- There is no majority rule. In case of a tie, no player takes damage.
- You can use vote [user], lynch [user] or attack [user], and you must do it in bold in order for your vote to count. Not going to be extremely anal about this unless I have to be.
- Cycles last 48 hours. 24 hours later on if everyone can handle it.

- I will provide help with faking your PM if I have time to do so. I will provide a maximum of one (1) safe claim for every player.

Some information for those wishing to fake claim:
- Basic Pokémon that can evolve have 60 HP. Most others have a little more.
- Evolution or leveling up generally gives you about 20 or 30 extra HP.
- A Stage 1 evolution of a Pokémon that can evolve twice merely gains a HP boost, it doesn't get any new attacks or bodies.
- I used cards from all over the series, between Base Set and HGSS.
- All cards are based on existing cards, with some things modified to keep the game fair, and to accustom for mechanics not in the game, such as the discard pile and prize cards.
- Remember kids, R Energy means Fire Energy, F Energy means Fighting Energy.

For a short summary:
- You're a Pokémon. You might be able to evolve, or level-up (become yourself Level X)
- You have cards in your hand.
- Energy cards are for attachment, you need to do so in order to pay for your attack cost.
- Cards can be traded. In fact, you must trade or your WC will become harder!
- You win by outliving four people in your group ("faction"), as well as one specific guy mentioned in your role PM.

I'll sign up for this, seems great and innovative. *Insert more flattery here*

I have played TCG in real life for the sets base-delta, not much experience for the metagame after that but I'm willing to study that too. I haven't played much over Redshark but I have a good knowledge of TCG. Oh and Finland has usually won the TCG world championships!